•Senate begs doctors to call off strike
•Why NMA hasn’t ended strike, by minister
There seems to be no end to the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) nationwide strike.
A meeting yesterday between the association and the Federal Government failed to resolve the issues that led to the doctors’ strike last week.
At an NMA emergency delegates’ meeting on Monday, which lasted about six hours – between 10.20pm and 3.45am on Tuesday – the doctors refused to shift ground.
President of Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), Dr. Steven Oluwole, said most of the issues had not been sufficiently addressed by the government.
He said: “The NMA will give the official position, but the story is not good. It is important for the government negotiation team to understand why the delegates feel so distraught.
“The restraint and caution of the MDCAN should not be used to malign junior doctors to accept the ‘suffering and smiling’ attitude. Junior doctors are at the frontline of patient management.
“They work endless hours in the hospitals. The government permits skipping support and administrative workers, who work fewer hours yet earn relatively more than the junior doctors. Sophisticated administrative and establishment arguments of why there should be no skipping for doctors will not placate.”
The union leader said most of the issues had not been seriously addressed.
The Senate yesterday begged the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) to call off its strike, a week after the union started the nationwide indefinite action.
It urged the doctors to return to the hospital to avoid further loss of lives.
Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu spoke yesterday in Abuja, following a point of order raised by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta North), on the doctors’ strike.
Okowa said the National Assembly’s Committee on Health and the committee set up by the Federal Government were working hard to ensure that the doctors return to work soon.
The senator said his committee had met with NMA’s leadership, adding that this led to the setting up of a Presidential Technical Committee, headed by the Secretary to the Federal Government, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim.
Okowa said: “The NMA said it would call its members back to offer emergency medical services. Since Friday, July 4, it had directed all medical institutions to offer emergency medical services to Nigerians.
“Yesterday (Monday), we were at the emergency delegates’ meeting. Delta State Governor (Emmanuel Uduaghan), who also is a medical doctor, myself and the Chairman of the House Committee on Health, were there. We addressed the emergency delegates’ meeting on the need to call off the strike.
“We did find that some of the circulars they demanded had been issued, but unfortunately, the strike was not called off at the end of the meeting.
“I thought I needed to inform my colleagues that emergency medical services have been restored to. But I will continue with the negotiation along with membership of the presidential committee to ensure that in the next few days we are able to get a resolution to the crisis.”
Ekweremadu, who presided over plenary, insisted that the strike was a direct blow to patients who could not afford treatment in private hospitals.
He said: “I would like to appeal to the striking doctors, on behalf of the Senate, to please consider going back to work because as long as they are on strike, the casualty will usually be the patients who are innocent of whatever agreement the doctors had with government.
“It is important that they realise that their primary responsibility is to save lives. So, we hope that you working with the rest of your colleagues and other interested parties that this matter be resolved as soon as possible so that they resume their usual duties and responsibilities to the patients…”
Health Minister, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, has urged the doctors to return to work.
He also told our correspondent why the striking doctors had not returned to the hospital, a week after they declared the nationwide indefinite action.
The minister spoke yesterday in Lagos at the foundation-laying ceremony of the permanent secretariat of the West African College of Surgeons, at Harvey Road in Yaba.
Chukwu, a fellow of the college, said: “We are nearing the end of the strike, because their demand on immediate payment is not totally new. The demand for the payment of the accrued money (CONMESS) started in January. We are working with the Ministry of Finance to get the payment done, since due process must be followed before the money is released. But the striking doctors insisted that they must receive the alerts before they could resume work or suspend the strike.
“I am working with a circular that I met at the ministry since the time of about nine previous ministers, including my illustrious teacher, the late Prof Olikoye Ransome-Kuti. Nigeria is moving on with global standard in medicine and health care delivery. Nothing will drag us back…”
Also, the emergency meeting convened yesterday between NMA’s representatives and the government ended in a stalemate.
Lagos State NMA Chairman Dr Francis Faduyile said the issues could not be resolved because “the government is not honest”.
“The government was playing the ostrich because most of the 24-count demands were yet to be addressed, as promised. The government said it would stick to the initial three directors for teaching hospitals, but there are teaching hospitals with more than three,” Faduyile said.
Prof Chukwu listed yesterday hinted on why the striking doctors had not called off their strike.
He said: “After we met them on Thursday, we achieved something and they were able to get their members, as a matter of duty, to render emergency services. We had hoped that by this morning (yesterday), we would be happy to have them at their various stations. I got a call that made it clear to me that after our long overnight meeting, they resolved not to come back to work.”
Despite the fact that I was there personally, around 11pm to address them, our colleagues, Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan also came to lend their voices. The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, as well as the Chairman of House of Representatives’ Committee on Health, Dr Ndudi Godwin Elumelu, were also there. They all pleaded with our colleagues. “Since the government has taken the action so seriously and we are actually addressing them and most of the issues can be addressed through the usually administrative mechanisms, they should return to work. But that has not happened…”
“As a doctor, without sounding immodest, I did not get to where I am today, I went through the ranks and did every position that they needed to in ranks, I am convinced this is one strike that should not have taken place. With all sense of responsibility, I have gone through everything and even what we achieved on Thursday was just like a re-read. There is nothing new being introduced in their demands, but I am told that they have reduced it to three minimum.
One is that a Circular that was issued by government through our collective effort in January to ensure that distortion relativity is achieved, which happened around 2014. We addressed it with a circular and they are aware that as of the time the president approved, because it has financial implication, the budget had already been presented. And this was clearly made known to the NMA that there may be difficulty, which they accepted. The President also told us that he has already directed
the Ministry of Finance that once we have an Appropriation Act, it should do her utmost to see how we can begin to pay and we knew how long it took for the Appropriation Bill to become Law. So, we pleaded that since we are working on it long with the Federal Ministry of Finance and because it was almost nearing the end of the journey that they should be patient. This is something that did not exist until January. It is totally new. To now demand this money that has accrued as arrears of since January until they have the alert on their phone they will not call off the strike.
The second condition I have been told have to do with skipping. Skipping started in 1991. But it was not done by doctors. It was unauthorised but allowed for the non doctors. After I came to office, I
worked with a circular made by the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, I became the first Minister to stop skipping because I have gone through some programmes as prescribed by the Council and told what needed to be done up to this moment. So, we did not skip in 2011 and 2012. After then, their union exercised their fundamental human right and then went to court. And the national industrial court ruled that since government has permitted them for a long time to skip even though unathorised, there must be negotiation before reversal. We have appealed that ruling as a means to obey the Rule of Law. But our colleagues now said they are being cheated, that even if they are to wait for the outcome of the appeal, they were not gaining what others are gaining and that government should begin implementing the skipping for them. They said they are willing to allow government to stop skipping if the court ruled in favour of it. Our negotiators accepted and work out modalities on
The third reason they gave for not returning to work today has to do with the issue of consultants. Since the 70s to 90s non medical doctors have been appointed by various hospitals and those hospitals are being managed by medical doctors. There is no medical director that is a non doctor. But our colleagues appoint others as consultant within the hospital setting. Again, when NMA complained I stopped it. It
was also the reason why others went to court and the court ruled that the Ministry and government have the right to decide who should be a Consultant in their hospitals. Those that were already enjoying that status before the ruling were asked to retain that position. We have
also appealed the position but can we ask the Ministry to disobey the court, which is not possible. I am for the Rule of Law. If they were the ones that got the judgment in their favor, will they expect government not to implement?
